Oh, What's in a Name?
by keep-me-posted
Summary: Lewis explains to Wilbur how he felt about changing his name to Cornelius. MTR OneShot.


Another MTR Oneshot! I wrote so many of these like a couple months after I bought the DVD, but I never put them on here, lol.

* * *

Young Cornelius was working on remodeling his old PB&J invention, when Wilbur showed up.

"Hi, Lewis!"

Cornelius turned, "Hi, Wilbur! Actually, you are to call me Cornelius now." Neil paused. "Actually, you should call me, Dad."

"Oh, no, no, no. You're not my dad yet. And besides, you don't look like a Cornelius. Not now anyways. You still feel like a Lewis."

The 12 year old shrugged. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

"No worries. Dad, er…Cornelius, er…you, I mean, the future you, said I could come see you, because I was good for a whole month. I didn't lie…I didn't break anything. I was perfect! For a month, anyway."

"Well, good for you, Wilbur!"

Wilbur slumped into a chair, "How can you handle that?"

"Handle what?" Cornelius wondered.

"Having the name Lewis all your life, then, out of the blue, changing it to Cornelius?"

"I don't know. And besides, I wasn't Lewis all my life."

"What do you mean?"

"Mildred came up with the name Lewis for me. When I was dropped off at the orphanage, I didn't have any birth certificate or anything, so she just looked at me, said I was a Lewis, and the name just stuck."

"How can you handle not knowing your real name?"

Cornelius sighed and put down his tools. "I don't know. It doesn't really matter. That was in the past. And we both know my motto isn't "Keep looking backward". It's…" Cornelius turned to his future son.

"Keep moving forward," Wilbur said in a monotone voice. "I know, I know."

"Right! Besides, there's no way to find it out, anyway."

"I know a way," Wilbur said, nodding his head towards the time machine.

"No! No, no, no, no, no," Cornelius repeated.

"But-"

"No!"

"Okay, okay." The two kids sat in silence for a while. "Well, I better get going." Wilbur sat up. "Are you sure you don't want to know?"

Cornelius didn't look up from his work, "Yes, Wilbur. I'm sure."

"Okay," Wilbur walked towards the window. "Oh, one more thing."

"No!"

"What? I was just gonna say your invention's looking good." Wilbur said, innocently, although it was obvious he was gonna ask Cornelius the same question again.

"Oh," Cornelius smiled. "Thanks."

Wilbur smiled. "Bye, Lewis-"

"Cornelius!"

"Whatever!" Wilbur shouted, starting up the time machine. He was still completely confused at the fact that Lewis had no intention of finding out his birth name, but tried to shrug it off, and headed home.

* * *

Back in the future, Wilbur sat on his bed, reading a comic book, when his dad passed by his door.

"Hey, Dad?"

Cornelius stuck his head into his son's room, "Yes, Wilbur?"

"Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Sure!" Cornelius sat on Wilbur's bed. "What's up?"

"Aren't you a teensy bit curious about what your mother named you?"

"Didn't we have this conversation 30 some years ago?"

Wilbur frowned.

"I'm just kidding," He said, patting his son on the back. "So, am I curious? No. To tell you the truth, I don't think she gave me a name."

"Why not?"

"Well, pretend you had a dog, and it had puppies, but you knew you had to give the puppies away. You wouldn't name them, would you?"

Wilbur shook his head.

"No, because you knew their name would be changed anyway. And, once you name something, odds are you start getting more attached to it. Which makes it more painful when you have to give something away."

Cornelius took off his glasses, wiped them clean, and placed them back on his face. "So, I think when my mother had me, she knew she was going to have to give me up anyway, so she left my name blank. I was probably just "baby" or "son" or "little one" for the little time I was with her."

Wilbur nodded. "But, what about changing your name to Cornelius after 12 years of Lewis?"

"We had this discussion about 30 years ago, too. Do you listen to the younger me at all?"

"Well, you know, you're so much older and wiser than Lewis. Plus you have a better vocabulary."

Cornelius chuckled, accepting the compliments. "Well, sure I liked the name Lewis, but Grandpa Bud said I didn't look like a Lewis, and I certainly didn't want to have the name of someone I didn't look like, now did I?"

"No, I guess not," Wilbur said, still a little confused.

"But, I'm still Lewis, in here," He said, pointing to his heart. "But now, I'm Cornelius out here! I'm Cornei-Lewis!" He said, laughing.

Wilbur nodded. "So, you think I could change my name?"

Cornelius chuckled, "No."

"Aww, come on! How about Arnold? Or Jack! Yeah, Jack Robinson! Doesn't that sound awesome?"

"No, I don't think so."

"But-"

"No! No, no, no, no, no." Cornelius got up from the bed, still chuckling a bit.

"One more thing."

"No!"

"I was just going to say love you…" Wilbur peeped.

Cornelius turned around, "Oh." He walked up to his son and gave him a hug. "I love you, too." He got back up and headed towards the door. "Goodnight, Wilbur."

"Night," Wilbur spoke. "Oh, and Dad?"

"No!" Cornelius called down the hall.

"Darn it!"

* * *

Whee! Okay, please R&R!


End file.
